p. 341 | AN OPEN LETTER by Mrs. S. N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 29, 1900

AN OPEN LETTER.

By Mrs. S. N. Haskell

DEAR SISTERS: We feel very thankful that there are so many who have a desire to work for the Master, and we know that God will open some way for you to be used in the closing work of the message if you fully consecrate yourselves to him and his service. In “Early Writings,” on page 138, under the article “The Loud Cry,” we read: “I heard voices which seemed to sound everywhere, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.’” Again, on page 139: “Servants of God endowed with power from on high, with their faces lighted up, and shining with holy consecration, went forth to proclaim the message from heaven. . . . I heard everywhere a multitude of voices saying, ‘Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’”

The voices are not the voices of angels, but the voices of human beings like you and me, who have learned so fully to trust in God that he can intrust them with his Spirit to carry forward his great work in the earth. Somebody is going to do it, and that soon. Will yours be one of the many voices? Will mine? God grant that we may both have a part in the great work.

If we who have received the light of the Third Angel’s Message do not seek God for the “holy consecration” that will enable us to do this work, he will pass us by and raise up others who will consecrate themselves wholly to his service, who will do the work, and we shall be left out. God forbid that any who read these lines shall be among that number.

The object of this work among our sisters is to arouse every woman in the rank and file of our people all over the earth to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. If you seek God for help now, to let your voice be heard pleading with sinners to forsake sin, when the loud cry of the loud cry comes you will be found among the many voices sounding the closing notes of the message.

The voices say, “Here is the patience of the saints.” Can you say that truthfully? Can you say to the members of your own family, “Here is the patience of the saints”? or have you been in the habit of showing so much impatience that you do not dare speak of the patience of the saints in your own home? Can you speak of it to your neighbors? Has your daily walk been such before them that your life preaches the truth? If your life seems a failure in this respect, do not give way to discouragement for one moment, but “gird up the loins of your mind,” and say, “The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” Isa. 50:7.

God is able and willing to take every human being who will give himself wholly to him, and make him a partaker of the divine nature. We long to see our sisters in every part of the work ambassadors for Christ, doing the work that he would do if he were living in their neighborhood; namely, teaching the Scriptures to the people, comforting the sorrowing, lifting up the falling and the fallen, caring for the sick, etc. Study your Bible until you can go to your neighbors, and point them to the truth that seems so precious to you.

MRS. S. N. HASKELL.